The invention relates generally to devices for handling flexible bagged products such as potato chips, and more particularly it concerns an improved apparatus for automatically packing flexible bagged products such as potato chips into a carbon or case for handling.
The efficient handling of bags of breakable product such as potato chips or corn chips has long been a problem to the makers of such products. To assist such handling, there has been developed a collating unit for bagged products and the like which is the subject of my U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,906. This patent is incorporated herein by reference for the purpose of setting forth a suitable apparatus for supplying collated product and units to a packing apparatus.
While the provision of a machine which can collate and collect flexible bagged products is believed to be a significant development in the handling of such products, there still exists the need to collect and move a selected number of rows of such product into a carton or box. An example of one approach of automatically collecting and packing a selected number of such bags is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,351. This patent is also incorporated herein by reference. This patent automatically collects a row of units of product in a vertical orientation and holds the row of products in the vertical orientation during handling through the use of opposing side belts comprised of high surface friction material.
While the provision of a machine which can move product in a vertical orientation from the place of collation to packing cases is believed to be a significant improvement, the side belts and related mechanism of the device require periodic maintenance and adjustment. It is therefore desirable to provide an apparatus which automatically collects and loads flexible bagged products into cartons in a vertical orientation having lower maintenance and adjustment requirements. The device should further be able to load a selected number of rows of such product into a carton without damage to the product.